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Friday, July 18, 2008

red cross quilt

After 16 months, it's finally finished. I first posted about it here.You can see the inspiration quilt here. And a larger shot here.It is for my oldest son. I finished it right after he went to bed one day this week, so I had it laying out, ready for him in the morning. (He was quite anxious for me to finish it.) When he saw it in the morning, he ran over, and got underneath and started snuggling up in it immediately. He loves it so much already. It makes me smile.The quilting was a little more challenging than usual. First, I used red thread to outline each cross. Then I stippled around each cross-which is where is got sketchy. It's hard to evenly fill in the spaces without quilting yourself into a dead end. It's not very even and it's a bit bunchy in places, but I am trying to cut myself some slack...at least there aren't any puckers, so I am happy with that.

Since I haven't been buying fabric and this is out of my normal quilting color scheme (pink) I was doubtful that I would be able to scrape up enough backing fabric. But I found this post which inspired me to dig a little deeper in my stash and come up with a solution. I'm really really happy with what I came up with. I had just enough fabric. And as weird as it seems to say this, I love the drabness of it.Here's a closer shot of the back....

For the binding I ran into the same problem...finding enough fabric in my stash that actually matches. I had a piece of solid fabric that was not quite large enough. So to add enough length, I added just 3 small sections of patterned fabric to the solid strips to make a piece of binding long enough to go all the way around. I like the bit of interest that it adds to the quilt.

It measures 54" x 72".

I improvisationally pieced (yay) the crosses, then added borders to make all the squares 9.5", so the blocks are 9" finished.

It looks great! And without buying any new fabrics too! You must have a huge stash....I love the pieced backs of the quilts you linked to as well, I did a pieced back on a playquilt for the kids, and I ended up liking the back more than the front :-)You can see it here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/80322373@N00/2323961282/in/set-72057594141798361/

I love the combination of the straight dark quilting with the light meanders. Creates a wonderful juxtaposition...(how's that for artsy talk) I love the simplicity and the randomness of the crosses. Simply fab!

Amanda,I love you work...Great quilt! I love the color combinations, thank you for the link on backings...I have a quilt sitting here that needs a back, you have inspired me to see if I can make it work! Off to quilt my grandson's quilt.Tricia

Oh my gosh, I cannot express how much I love this quilt!! Absolutely gorgeous. If I wasn't fully committed (as in pieced-basted-ready to quilt) my master bed quilt it would look like this instead. Love!!

It's beautiful. When I first looked at the photos I thought you had tea dyed the backing fabric.I love pieced backs although they do take a little more time to put together.And I REALLY love pieced bindings.So thrifty!

I love the simplicity of the design! And I love the idea of using what you have to make the quilt. It gives it such a wonderful look! Congrats! (my son is getting a quilt today too, shh! he doesn't know yet ;o) )

Congratulations! It's really beautiful. I love that you were able to piece the backing and binding from your stash, thus keeping your no-new-fabric resolve. Good for you! And it all turned out just beautifully. What a great quilt.

This is REALLY nice ... and I can't wait to see what masterpieces the 15 stacks from your previous post produce! I so love your quilts. Have you seen the one Dana is giving away at http://oldredbarnco.blogspot.com/

Another beautiful creation! I love it!! It is so nice to see your children get excited about things like this that you put your heart into making for them...I made 2 super easy quilts for my 2 girls after they went to bed one night and placed them on their beds. In the morning, they were so excited and couldn't stop talking about them! Great job!!

I love this! I have had my eye on the inspiration quilt and have been thinking about trying one out. I love the simplicity of the colors and the boldness of the pattern. You did a wonderful job and I adore the backing. So clever and so beautiful. I am sure your son will love it forever.

Great work! I admire your free motion machine quilting and the quilt design, including the backing. Until this summer I have always thought the backing should be of one fabric and preferably no seams at all. I've been mislead!

Oooo! I love this! This would be perfect for my sister in law, I may have to rethink the quilt I had planned for her for Christmas! I specially love how you outlines the crosses with red stitching. Such a nice detail.

I love this one. I didn't realise it was red until this post. It looked a wonderful muted sepia. I was thinking that I'd love to try making one, but in red, so I was delighted to see that this really was red.